Project description:To determine if significant genomic changes are associated with the development of vancomycin intermediate Staphylococcus aureus, genomic DNA microarrays were performed to compare the initial vancomycin susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (VSSA) and a related vancomycin intermediate Staphylococcus aureus (VISA) isolate from five unique patients (five isolate pairs). Keywords: comparative genomic hybridization
Project description:Coordinated protein-coding sequence transcriptional responses of Staphylococcus aureus to antimicrobial exposure are well described but little is known of the role of bacterial non-coding, small RNAs (sRNAs) in these responses. Here we used RNAseq to investigate the sRNA response of the epidemic multiresistant hospital ST239 S. Aureus strain JKD6009 and its vancomycin-intermediate clinical derivative, JKD6008, after exposure to four antibiotics representing the major classes of antimicrobials used to treat methicillin-resistant S. Aureus infections. These agents included vancomycin, linezolid, ceftobiprole, and tigecycline. We identified 410 potential sRNAs (sRNAs) and then compared global sRNA and mRNA expression profiles at 2 and 6 hours, without antibiotic exposure, and after exposure to 0.5 x MIC for each antibiotic, for both JKD6009 (VSSA), and JKD6008 (VISA). Two strains were used (JKD6009, vancomycin-susceptible S. Aureus; JKD6008, in vivo derived vancomycin-intermediate S. Aureus). The complete JKD6008 genome seqeuce was used as the reference. Two time points, 2 hours and 6 hours after culture in Mueller Hinton broth. Strains were exposed to no antibiotic, or 0.5 x MIC for 10 mins for the following antibiotics; vancomycin, linezolid, ceftobiprole, tigecycline. RNA isolation procedures enriched for mRNA or sRNA. The 40 cDNA libraries were sequenced using a whole flowcell (8 lanes) in an Illumina genome analyzer GAII for 36 cycles. Data was analyzed using the BioConductor package limma, and by applying non-negative matrix factorization to determine the impact of antibiotic exposure on the sRNA and mRNA transcriptional profiles.
Project description:Vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus (VISA) evolve in a strain-specific manner and acquire mutations that lead to alterations in cell wall metabolism that reduce susceptibility to vancomycin. We had earlier isolated several VISA mutant strains of the clinical hVISA strain MM66. This study is aimed at analyzing the metabolome of these mutants in comparison to the parent strain.
Project description:Complete reconstitution of the vancomycin-intermediate Staphylococcus aureus (VISA) phenotype of Mu50 was achieved by sequentially introducing mutations into five genes of a vancomycin-susceptible S. aureus (VSSA) strain ∆IP. Introduction of mutation Ser329Leu into vraS encoding the sensor histidine kinase of vraSR two-component regulatory (TCR) system and another mutation Glu146Lys into msrR, encoding putative methionine sulfoxide reductase regulator, raised vancomycin resistance to the level of heterogeneously vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus (hVISA) strain Mu3. Introduction of two more mutations, graR (Asn197Ser) of graSR TCR system and rpoB(His481Tyr) encoding ß subunit of RNA polymerase, converted the hVISA strain into a VISA strain having the level of vancomycin resistance of Mu50. Surprisingly, however, the constructed quadruple mutant strain did not have thickened cell wall, a cardinal feature of VISA phenotype. Subsequent study showed that cell-wall thickening was an inducible phenotype with the mutant strain as opposed to that of Mu50, which is a constitutive one. Finally, introduction of mutation Ala297Val into the orf SAV2309 of the mutant strain converted the inducible cell-wall thickening into a constitutive one. SAV2309 encodes a putative formate dehydrogenase (designated Fdh2). Though not a transcription regulator, the mutation of the fdh2 caused a significant change in transcriptome. Thus, all of the five mutated genes required for VISA phenotype acquisition were directly or indirectly involved in the regulation of cell physiology. VISA seemed to be achieved through multiple genetic events accompanying drastic changes in cell physiology.
Project description:Daptomycin (DAP) is the last-resort treatment for heterogeneous Vancomycin-Intermediate-Staphylococcus aureus (hVISA) and Vancomycin-Intermediate-S.aureus (VISA), and DAP-resistance onset which is also linked to reduced vancomycin susceptibility, is an increasing public health problem. To have more insight into the mechanisms of daptomycin resistance, the comparative transcriptomes of two DAP-R (1C-3B) clinical isogenic isolates vs their DAP-S (1A-3A) counterparts were investigated by Illumina RNA-seq, the Rockhopper tool, computational filtering analyses and bioinformatic tools.
Project description:Investigation of baseline transcription activity of two different clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus with two different susceptibility levels to the antibiotics Vancomycin and Daptomycin. Two different strains of Staphylococcus aureus, one that is fully Vancomycin and Daptomycin Sensitive and one with decreased Vancomycin and Daptomycin Sensitivity - grown to mid-log phase in rich broth.
Project description:The precise mechanism and effects of antibiotics in host gene expression and immunomodulation in MRSA infection is unknown. Using a well characterized Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolate USA300 in a murine model of infection, we determined that linezolid and vancomycin induced differential production of bacterial toxins and host cytokines, differences in host gene expression, and differences in immunomodulators during MRSA bloodstream infection. A total of 35 A/J mice, categorized into seven groups (no infection; no infection with linezolid; no infection with vancomycin; 2 hour post-infection (hpi) S. aureus; 24 hpi S. aureus; 24 hpi S. aureus with linezolid; and 24 hpi S. aureus with vancomycin), were used in this study. Mice were injected with USA300 (6 x 106 CFU/g via i.p. route), then intravenously treated with linezolid (25 mg/kg) or vancomycin (25 mg/kg) at 2 hpi. Control and S. aureus infected mice were euthanized at each time point (2 h or 24h) following injection. Whole blood RNA was used for microarray; three cytokines and two S. aureus toxins [PantonValentine Leukocidin (PVL) and alpha hemolysin] were quantified in mouse serum by ELISA. S. aureus CFUs were significantly reduced in blood and kidney after linezolid or vancomycin treatment in S. aureus-infected mice. In vivo IL-1β in mouse serum was significantly reduced in both linezolid (p=0.001) and vancomycin (p=0.006) treated mice compared to untreated ones. IL-6 was significantly reduced only in linezolid treated (p<0.001) but not in vancomycin treated mice. However, another proinflammatory cytokine, TNF-α, did not exhibit altered levels in either linezolid or vancomycin treated mice (p=0.3 and p=0.51 respectively). In vivo level of bacterial toxin, Panton-Valentine leukocidin, in mouse serum was significantly reduced only in linezolid treated mice (p=0.02) but not in vancomycin treated mice. There was no significant effect of either treatment in in vivo level of alpha hemolysin production. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering using the gene expression data from 35 microarrays revealed distinct clustering based on infection status and treatment group. Study of the antibiotic-specific difference in gene expression identified the number of genes uniquely expressed in response to S. aureus infection, infection with linezolid treatment, and infection with vancomycin treatment. Pathway associations study for the differentially expressed genes in each comparison group (Control vs. 24 h S. aureus infection, 24 h S. aureus infection vs. 24 h S. aureus linezolid, and 24 h S. aureus infection vs. 24 h S. aureus vancomycin) in mice using Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) identified toll-like receptor signaling pathway to be common to every comparison groups studied. Glycerolipid metabolism pathway was uniquely associated only with linezolid treatment comparison group. The findings of this study provide the evidence that protein synthesis inhibitor like linezolid does a better job in treating MRSA sepsis compared to cell wall acting antibiotics like vancomycin.
Project description:Coordinated protein-coding sequence transcriptional responses of Staphylococcus aureus to antimicrobial exposure are well described but little is known of the role of bacterial non-coding, small RNAs (sRNAs) in these responses. Here we used RNAseq to investigate the sRNA response of the epidemic multiresistant hospital ST239 S. Aureus strain JKD6009 and its vancomycin-intermediate clinical derivative, JKD6008, after exposure to four antibiotics representing the major classes of antimicrobials used to treat methicillin-resistant S. Aureus infections. These agents included vancomycin, linezolid, ceftobiprole, and tigecycline. We identified 410 potential sRNAs (sRNAs) and then compared global sRNA and mRNA expression profiles at 2 and 6 hours, without antibiotic exposure, and after exposure to 0.5 x MIC for each antibiotic, for both JKD6009 (VSSA), and JKD6008 (VISA).
Project description:WalKR is an essential two component regulatory system in S. aureus, thought to control cell wall metabolism. Using genome sequencing of 5 paired clinical isolates of vancomycin-susceptible and vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus we found frequent, but unique, mutations in this locus. To investigate the contribution of these mutations to vancomycin resistance allelic replacement WalK (G223D) and WalR (K208R) mutants were generated and compared to the parent strains. Mutations in walk and walR led to increased vancomycin resistance, reduced biofilms formation and attenuation of virulence, demonstrating that minor genetic changes in this locus can lead to significant changes in bacterial resistance and virulence. Microarray transcriptional comparisons were performed to investigate the regulatory effects of the WalK (G223D) and WalR (K208R) mutations, and demonstrated that while changes in genes affecting cell wall metabolism were detected, more dramatic changes were found in regulation of cellular metabolism.
Project description:Staphylococcus aureus is a notorious bacterial pathogen that causes a broad range of human diseases, and isolates that are resistant to several antibiotic classes including last resort antibiotics like vancomycin and daptomycin complicate the situation. We characterized S. aureus VC40, a strain that shows full resistance to vancomycin (MIC of 64 µg/ml) and daptomycin (MIC of 4 µg/ml) as well as a decreased susceptibility to further cell wall active agents. Genome sequencing revealed mutations in genes encoding the histidine kinases WalK and VraS that control cell envelope related processes and gene expression profiling indicated the induction of the respective regulons in strain VC40. Reconstitution of the mutations in walK or vraS into the susceptible S. aureus NCTC 8325 background resulted in a considerably increased resistance to vancomycin and daptomycin with MICs surpassing the clinical breakpoints for these antibiotics, thereby generating vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus (VISA) strains. As observed for S. aureus VC40, the walKwalk and vraS mutations also led to an increased expression of the respective regulons in the NCTC 8325 background. Phenotypic studies showed that S. aureus VC40 as well as the walKwalk and vraS mutants of strain NCTC 8325 were characterized by a significantly thickened cell wall, a decreased growth rate, a reduced autolytic activity and an increased resistance to lysostaphin-induced lysis. These results demonstrate that the WalK and VraS histidine kinases act as major switches which allow S. aureus to rapidly develop vancomycin resistance up to the VISA level via mutation of one single gene locus and concomitantly contribute to cross-resistance to other antibiotics including the last resort antibiotic daptomycin.